


Finally

by Aeviann



Category: Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-23 01:30:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17673839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeviann/pseuds/Aeviann
Summary: After defeating Lekain in the Tower of Guidance, Naesala seeks out Reyson to finally open his heart again. One-shot.





	Finally

**Author's Note:**

> After the birds got included in feh I got hit by a major wave of feels and remembered this fic that I had lying on my computer for like 2 or 3 years. I decided it was time to take the chance and finally publish it.
> 
> I usually don't really write, so this might be the only thing I post for like 10 years or so lol (though I hope that this won't be the case).
> 
> As a non-native speaker, I have to excuse in advance for any potential spelling or grammar errors.
> 
> Enjoy-!

The dead Senator’s body was lying on the ground, his face frozen in a twisted mask of death. 

 

As the raven king Naesala let go of the lifeless body, blood welled out from the countless wounds that his sharp talons had torn into the flesh, soaking the dead man’s fine silken robes all over and turning the fabric into a dark red colour. The bird’s black feathers were covered in blood as well, but it didn’t matter in that very moment.

Lekain, duke Gaddos, senator and vice-minister of Begnion, was dead. 

The man that Naesala had hated for what felt like centuries, the man he would still hate for the remainder of his life, however long that may be, and the man that had caused his people and so many others to suffer for such a long time, was no more.

Taking a step back from the corpse, the raven shifted back into his human form. He had to cringe slightly at the sight of the disgusting Beorc that looked even more despicable in death. But at the same time he couldn’t make himself look away. The Laguz had not been holding back when he had attacked the senator, all the pain and hatred of all the years fueling his attacks, leaving the body almost unrecognizable. It was not like him; he was a raven, after all, and their strength had always been to run, not to fight. He found no joy in mindless brutality. In an ordinary situation he probably would’ve had someone else do the dirty work, but this was no ordinary situation, and his enemy had been no ordinary man. Lekain’s face still showed how afraid he had been when facing death. He had screamed for mercy, wailed how he was superior and how he had been chosen and how the Goddess would save him and kill them all. 

It had been pathetic.

Naesala straightened himself and smoothed out his clothes, wiping away any remaining blood from his face with the back of his hand. Only now did he take notice of his surroundings again, just to discover that the battle was actually over. He took a brief look around, but before he could start searching for a certain contract, Micaiah and the thief that was her always close companion -Naesala remembered his name to be Sothe- came running in his direction. Both were staring at the dead Lekain on the ground, still breathing heavily from fighting. Naesala put on his usual face of common disinterest. He gave the girl a curt nod, which she returned, not able to hide her excitement, while Sothe already knelt down beside the senator, a disgusted look on his face. It was most certainly not because of the blood. The Laguz felt annoyed by this bold interruption, but decided he could as well wait for another moment, so he stepped aside and let the green-haired Beorc search the corpse instead. Not that he wanted to touch Lekain again, anyway.

It took the thief only a few seconds to realize that Lekain still clutched the blood pact tightly, almost desperately, right between his cold and stiff fingers. Sothe wriggled the parchment free out of the dead grip, shouting in utter relief.

“Micaiah, this is it! It's... It's the actual blood pact!”

The girl looked as if she was about to cry, and maybe she did, but she swallowed it down and smiled happily at the boy, taking the document as Sothe held it out for her.

“You know what to do.”

The silver-haired girl nodded. Then, after a mere moment of hesitation, she ripped the piece of paper apart. It started to glow just in the faintest light, seemed to dissolve itself into nothing, vanishing in the air… and then it was gone. Naesala had watched with interest as the parchment slowly faded, but then the boy’s voice got his attention again:

“Hey! Micaiah, there's another pact here. Lekain was carrying two of them. What's going on?!”

The raven acted quickly. Before the whisper could hand it over to Micaiah he snatched the paper right out of Sothe’s hands. 

“That one would be mine, then.”  
The thief looked confused, but Naesala simply smirked at the boy. He didn’t need to know things that weren’t meant for him to know.  
Unfortunately Micaiah just had to believe that a conversation was in order right now.

“Kilvas as well?” 

Naesala tried to avoid answering that question directly.  
“It makes sense that he would carry them all with him. All the betrayal, all the lies... But it's over now.”

He said it more to himself than to her. Luckily the girl seemed to, at least once, make use of her mind-reading abilities when they were needed, because she turned to the thief then instead of responding.

“…Sothe, we should go and check if anyone is wounded and needs our help.”

The boy was about to start protesting, but Micaiah simply grabbed him by the sleeve and dragged him away, towards the rest of the group. That took care of that. Naesala did not regard them with another look.  
He unrolled the blood pact, slowly, still wondering how a stupid little piece of paper could cause so much trouble. His eyes quickly flew over the neatly written lines, noticing that the ink had already started to fade, and finally stopped at the signature of his predecessor, written in blood.

_Stupid fool._

The Kilvan king tore the blood pact clear in two halves.

After the last shred of it was gone, Naesala jerked his left sleeve up, just in time to observe the mark on his arm vanishing. It looked as if his skin absorbed the dark, fine lines, just like parchment would absorb ink. The whole process felt like it took forever. When the mark was gone entirely, the Raven found himself carefully touching the spot where it had been just a moment ago, as if to reassure himself that he was not dreaming. 

He let out a relieved sigh. He was not.  
Aside from numerous scars, the skin was completely white again.

It felt like the first time in his entire life that he had been able to do one good thing for his people at all. Oh, what a good king he was.  
His gaze fell upon the dead body at his feet again.

_Death is far too good for you, Lekain, you murderer._

Then he found it was time to see to the other urging matter that he needed to take care of. Naesala rolled down his sleeve again and stepped over Lekain’s corpse, leaving it right there to rot in the tower for eternity, and made his way towards the others. He let his eyes wander around until he spotted the pair of white wings that he was searching for.

_Reyson._

He stalked over to him, circling around several dead soldiers that were lying in his way. They were burned, pierced with spears, ripped apart –Laguz work clearly- or simply cut open, blood pooling out around them. He avoided looking at their faces directly. More focused on avoiding corpses it was too late when he noticed that the heron, who was at the moment talking to Ike, was accompanied by a certain hawk, and unfortunately this hawk had noticed him approaching way earlier.

“Naesala.”

Tibarn almost spat out the name, crossing his arms over his massive chest and blocking the way to Reyson, so Naesala almost ran into him. A little surprised he took a step back, looking at the Phoenician king. The hawk stared down at the Raven -goddess, Naesala was nearly as tall as him, but somehow Tibarn still managed to stare _down_ at him- anger written all over his face. Almost, _almost_ , Naesala threw some idiotic comment back at the hawk, but he held it back, because he realized that if he did, he would most likely end up being beaten and definitely _not_ talking to Reyson. But now he desperately needed to, so instead he tried to choose his words more carefully. He tried.

“My, my, Tibarn, no need to be so angry. I merely want to talk to my best friend, what harm could that possibly do?” Naesala forced an innocent smile. His efforts were met with Tibarn glaring daggers at him. Seeing that this would not get him anywhere, he tried another way.

“See, I know that I’m still the last person you want to see, and that you hate me and would like to kill me and that you cannot trust me anymore for your entire life and all that, but I really, really need to talk to Reyson right now, so I would rather appreciate it if you could move aside so I can do just that.”  
…  
“And _only_ that.” he added quickly, although it sounded absolutely stupid. “Please.”

Naesala waited for any response, but Tibarn did not move an inch, nor did he say anything. He just continued staring _down_ at the raven, who was growing more impatient with every second passing, wings twitching nervously. The raven could see that Sanaki eyed them suspiciously, but the Laguz shook his head, just slightly, and the girl seemed to understand, since she turned to take up a conversation with Caineghis. When Tibarn still did not respond in any way, Naesala dared to speak up a bit. This was starting to annoy him.

“See, you really could avoid talking to me if you would just let me pass and-“

“Ah, and why would I do that, _crow?”_

“Trust me, you-“ _…Dammit_ .He instantly regretted his choice of words.

“Trust YOU?!? How dare you even use that word on me again, Naesala?! Give me one good reason why I should let you go! I don’t know what’s going on in your damn head, but if you ever even dare so much as to touch Reyson one more time, I’ll ensure that you will regret it for the rest of your worthless life! The last time I was stupid enough to trust you, you repaid it with betrayal, slaughtering my people, burning my country, and for all that I care it seems you never seemed at least a bit sorry about it! I should have killed you way earlier, you traitorous, disgusting-”

“Tibarn, stop.”  
And suddenly Reyson was there, white wings and golden hair and slender body, placing himself between Naesala and the furious hawk.  
Almost the entire group stared at the three birds by that time, and also, worst of all, most of them seemed to know, more or less, what was going on. Naesala felt their eyes on him, felt the tension in the air, all of it making him really uncomfortable in his own feathers. Thankfully, Sanaki was, again, wise enough to react quickly and hastily urged everyone to continue whatever they had been doing. That girl was smarter than she had any right to be. Mouthing a silent “Thank you” to the empress, which she answered with a knowing smile, Naesala turned back to the problem at hand. Even Tibarn seemed confused, though, because he did indeed stop and instead looked at the heron in question, the anger not gone entirely. Reyson did not regard Naesala with a single look.

“Tibarn, let him talk to me, he is not going to do anything to me. Not here. Not anymore. You know that.”

Reyson tried to act casual.

“And if not, well, I guess I’ll punch him really hard in the face?”

That almost made Naesala smirk. He looked at Tibarn. The raven could read in the hawk’s golden eyes that he was deliberating about whether it was wise to let a traitorous crow leave with the prince of Serenes or not. 

_“Please.”_

Reyson begged, grabbing Tibarn by the arm, who was looking at the Raven suspiciously. For a mere moment Naesala feared that the hawk would just ignore Reyson’s plea, but then, finally, reluctantly, he seemed to give in. He leaned down to the other man, whispering something in his ear that the raven could not understand, and pulled him into a quick kiss. Naesala’s wings twitched again. Then, with hesitation, Tibarn took a step back, releasing the heron, who smiled reassuringly. The raven king did not intend to spend any more time in the hawk’s presence. He took Reyson’s hand, still feeling Tibarn’s angry gaze upon him, but he didn’t care anymore. Tightening his grip around the heron’s fingers, he fled away from Tibarn, away from all the other people, away from everything.  
Naesala led the way towards the huge, ornate double-wing doors, the same doors through which they had entered the hall. Without complaining or speaking at all –for which Naesala was grateful- the Serenes followed the raven as he slipped through the narrow gap in between the two door wings, feathers brushing against cold stone. 

And then, suddenly, there was only silence. All the talking, the clattering of weapons and armor had muted into one, distant whisper that was barely audible behind the thick stone, even over the low, but fast breathing of the two birds. They were standing in the first hall of the Tower of Guidance, with the gargantuan pillars lined up along the walls. The whole room was illuminated with a strange, surreal blue light that had no visible source. There was no ceiling; the pillars and walls just seemed to go on forever, reaching into the shadows overhead.  
“Naesa-“ 

…Reyson wanted to begin, but the raven silenced him by raising his hand. 

As the heron fell silent, he looked up to him with confusion in his green eyes, but Naesala simply made his way further down the stairs, the sound of footsteps from behind reassuring him that Reyson was still following.  
The heron stopped before him at the base of the steps and cocked his head to the side, folding his wings carefully, and regarding Naesala with a questioning look. The raven finally answered, his expression serious now.

“I simply can’t have anyone interrupt this now.”

“Interrupt what? …Naesala, what are you talking about?”

He could see that the other man was nervous.  
As was he. Was he really trembling? Naesala had never expected this to be this agitating.

He inhaled deeply, but the calming effect failed to appear. Somehow he managed to keep his voice steady, though. He carefully took the heron’s hands into his, looking firmly into the other man’s green, beautiful eyes. He was afraid that Reyson might flinch away, but he didn’t.

“I want you to look into my soul.”  
The heron exhaled sharply at that, looking at the raven in astonishment and confusion. Before the prince could say anything to object, Naesala gave his hands a determined, firm squeeze.  
“Don’t ask. This is something I need to show you, and I need to do it now, since we are soon going to kill goddessdamned Ashera, and I am not sure if any of us will survive this madness. And even if we do survive, Tibarn still wants my head, which probably results in me getting killed either way. So believe me, there isn’t really much time left. ….Please, Reyson.”

He had expected Reyson to be taken aback like this.  
Decades ago, after the day of his coronation, when he had learned what being king of Kilvas really meant, he had asked Reyson to never to read his mind ever again, until he allowed him otherwise. Reyson had promised it, had never questioned it, and had been holding his word since then. Naesala was unbelievably grateful for that. …And ever since then he had betrayed, stolen, murdered and lied for the sake of his people; he even had had to betray Reyson, sell him like he was some object he could trade. Reyson had later told him that he had forgiven him, forgiven him, but still Naesala felt the guilt of never having been able to explain why he had done all of it. And that had been the worst of it all, because he had known he had betrayed Reyson’s trust, and would probably have to do it many times over again. 

And even now that he _could_ explain, words would not suffice to make up for everything.

So Naesala stood there, trembling, looking into Reyson’s eyes that were still widened in disbelief, still clutching the heron’s hands tightly between his. He didn’t know how much time passed while they stood like this in absolute silence, but then, eventually, Reyson’s features softened. Closing his eyes, the Serenes let out a shuddering breath and lowered his head, his expression smooth, but concentrated, and Naesala knew that Reyson understood.

_He is as nervous as I am._  
Somehow he needed Reyson to get to understand. All of it. It was now his part to let everything that had happened, all the terrible years, all the things that, until now, only he knew, pass in his mind again. 

He was well aware that this would not be easy.  
As he closed his eyes as well, Naesala tried to think back to the beginning of the most terrible time in his life.  
___ 

His parents had both died a few weeks after the mysterious plague had started to cause a wave of panic across Kilvas. Along with them, most of the possible claimants to the throne had perished over time, so that in the end, by all the cruel means of fate, Naesala had become direct heir to the throne. Yet still the king himself had been living, and Naesala had stayed with Nealuchi since then, fighting against grief and fear, but living. He had not seen Reyson during that time, nor had he been able to contact him in any way; no one had been allowed to leave or enter the country, as everybody had feared the mysterious disease could spread. No one had known what was going on. There had been no medicine, no cure, no one you could turn to. Families had locked themselves up inside their homes in desperate hope of staying safe, just to discover one of the children or the mother or father dead the next day. At some stage the people of Kilvas had stopped granting the dead proper burials; there simply had been too many dead, and every day there had been more. Only one morning, after about one hundred days of suffering, the plague had seemed to have ended, as abruptly as it had started; people had simply… stopped dying all of a sudden. Though he had found it hard to believe, it had granted Naesala one short day of rest.  
The next day though, rumors had been heard that the king had died. People had said that he had, mad and desperate, having lost his wife and children, thrown himself off the cliffs into the sea.  
The day after that, Naesala had learned that he was to be crowned new king of Kilvas.  
With no experience and hardly any knowledge of politics he had endured the hastily arranged coronation ceremony a week later. He had never wanted to wear the crown, since he had not felt like a king, or rather not like a king worthy of wearing one. On the same evening he had noticed the blood-red mark that had somehow appeared on his arm.

Days had passed, and he had grown more and more anxious about it. The country was barely recovering from the plague, and all he could do was not completely lose his sanity while dealing with so much suffering. One evening, a senator from Begnion had made an unannounced visit, even though Naesala had decided to still keep the quarantine. Given senator had introduced himself as duke Gaddos, who was, years later, to be followed by his son Lekain, and he had explained the mark to him. 

_“…so I presume you understand that, should there be any reason for the senate to be disappointed in you, there is a possibility that your country could suffer from yet another… how should I say… hmm, unfortunate disease? We wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we?_

_…Oh and, congratulations on your coronation, king Naesala.”_

That night Naesala had tried to kill himself.  
He had also tried cutting the mark out of his arm, but even that had never worked. Finally, the raven had realized that even if he killed himself, there would be another king after him, and he would be put under the same curse, and the one after that as well, and the one after that, and after that. So Naesala decided that he would obey. He would do anything Begnion and the senate ordered him to do, and if it was to kill Reyson. He saw no other possibility; all he wanted to do was save his people from suffering ever again, even if it meant to sacrifice everything that made his life worth living. 

Too soon he almost had to.  
When he had heard that the raging Begnion citizens were setting the forest of Serenes afire, he had ordered one of his servants to lock him up in a windowless room just to keep himself from leaving and saving Reyson and slaughtering all of Begnion’s inhabitants and then the rest of the Beorc on Tellius. For days he had heard nothing about the massacre. Just a single messenger from Phoenicis had finally brought the relief: Reyson and his father, Lorazieh, were living and under Tibarn’s protection. But it had been only them. Just two. The rest of the entire clan of Serenes had been declared dead.

Reyson’s sister Leanne, his mother, his siblings, _all of them._

However Naesala could not allow himself to turn against the Begnion senate. He just kept on ruling, and obeying, and keeping his people safe. He even started trading with those Beorcs. Twenty years later, during Mad King Ashnard’s War, he had seen Reyson again for the first time. And then he had been forced to sell him off to that sick senator right away. But he had not complained even once. He had seen how strong Reyson had grown, and he had also noticed the affection between him and the hawk king, but Reyson was save, and that was all that mattered. 

Three years later still, the senate ordered him to betray the Laguz Alliance and wipe out Phoenicis, and still he had obeyed.

And he had done all of that hoping that one day, maybe, he would find a way to lift the curse, so that he could be with Reyson again. It had been a foolish hope, but still Naesala had held on to it, because it was the only thing left in his life that was worth holding onto, even if it was selfish.  
___

Naesala didn’t notice how much he was trembling until he opened his eyes. Reyson was shivering just like him, but he still had his eyes shut. He mumbled something under his breath that Naesala could not understand, so he carefully asked:

“…Reyson?”

The answer was, again, just a whisper.

“…what…?”

Reyson opened his eyes and _slapped_ him in the face.

“…I said you MORON!”

The Serenes’ voice echoed off the walls, until the whole room screamed “Moron! Moron!” at Naesala. After the sound faded away there was only silence. The Prince looked up at him, tears welling up in his eyes and hand still held up as if he was ready to strike again. Naesala looked back, not certain what to do or say. Was it anger or… relief, that he saw in the other man’s eyes, or something else? He wasn’t sure.  
Then Reyson’s hands suddenly moved to Naesalas waist, and he pulled him into his arms.

It took the Naesala a moment to comprehend what just _happened._ Although his mind was too slow to process anything, his body acted on his own, leaning into the contact like it was an instinct to survive (maybe it was, kind of). It felt like they were this close for the first time and like they had been doing this all their lives at the same time. Naesala felt his own arms reaching around the slender figure of the heron, hesitantly at first, but soon his hands were gripping the fabric of Reyson’s clothes as all the emotions he had been hiding all these years came washing over him. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been this happy. After what felt like minutes, Naesala noticed the other Laguz releasing his grip to look at him, though their faces remained only inches apart.

“You’re such an idiot, Naesala.” Reyson whispered low under his breath, smiling to himself and then pulling him into another quick hug, mumbling “idiot, idiot, idiot” as their cheeks touched. Naesala noticed that Reyson was crying, still mumbling to himself all the while. They were both reduced to a hopeless pile of emotions. 

Shame.

Finally the prince took a step back, wiping the tears on his cheeks away with his sleeve. His hands found their way to the fabric of Naesala’s blood-stained collar, pretending to clean it a little with his fingers; a futile attempt. But now Reyson took his time to truly look at Naesala, his eyes moving to observe every single part of the raven king’s features. 

“You look terrible.” He finally concluded.

“I know. I love you.” 

“I know.”

That was all that was needed to be said for the moment. Other things could wait for later. The only thing they needed now was each other’s company, without this lie between them, finally, after 25 years. Or 30? 40? Naesala had never counted. He pulled Reyson close again.

The two birds were so engaged with each other that they didn’t even notice the sound of the two doors to the chamber opening, the sound of stone scraping on stone. 

“Oi, crow.”

Tibarn’s voice was echoing through the hall. 

“Just wanted to remind you-“

Only then did Naesala shift his position. With his wings out of the way, he gave the hawk a perfect view of the white prince, who was in his arms, head rested on his shoulders and appearing to be ignorant of the third man’s presence and anything else. Not even possessing the politeness to blush (he rarely ever did), Naesala only kept smiling, way too relieved and happy to care for any possible consequences. 

Tibarn’s face immediately ridded itself of any emotion, leaving the Laguz to stare blankly at the scene beneath him. Only his eyes were giving away his true feelings, and they seemed to tell Naesala one thing very clearly.

I’ll kill you.

Instead he only said “We’re leaving now.”, then the doors slammed shut behind him.

Naesala knew that he had to deal with that issue later, but for now he didn’t want to think of it. First they had to kill the goddess Ashera herself. But that shouldn’t be a problem. He had survived a mad king, two wars and a bloodpact, so why not a psychopath goddess and a raging hawk king? 

Absentmindedly he stroked Reyson’s hair. He smelled of sweat and blood and smoke. 

To Naesala, that made him even more beautiful.

**Author's Note:**

> I know that the heron mind-reading magic probably doesn't work this way, since it's implied in the games that it's more like picking up emotions than exact thoughts, but I'd imagine that Reyson would be able to understand that Naesala wasn't really responsible for all the crap that he did and that he went through some pretty shitty times.
> 
> I'm hopeless Tibarn/Reyson/Naesala shipping trash so there might be more to come. Or maybe not.  
> I'm just not sure if I can live with Tibarn hating Naesala's guts forever.
> 
> Until now, thank you for reading!


End file.
